Crystal Palace’s man of the moment Jason Puncheon has praised Tony Pulis for turning his season around after giving the winger confidence to overcome his homecoming jitters.

Puncheon, who joined the club the supported as a child in August on an initial season long loan from Southampton, is now the club’s top scorer and has netted three goals in two games to all but confirm Premier League football in SE25 for another year.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the 27-year-old, who started slowly in a Palace shirt and courted controversy after hitting out at Neil Warnock after the former Palace boss criticised his penalty miss at Tottenham in January.

He recalled: “It was a difficult time but to give the gaffer and his coaching staff the credit, they were great for me.

“The gaffer spoke to me about it and told me to not worry about it and prove to everyone how good a player I am.

“Since then I haven’t looked back.

“Coming home at the start of the season made me a little bit jittery and I had a lot of butteflies that didn’t let me play at my full potential.

“But since the gaffer came in things have turned around for me and I’m looking forward now.”

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